Golf club



April 14, 1925. 1,533,638

P. E. DUTCHER GOLF C UB Fil'ed Nov. '7, 1924 1 Q awveutoz M am 1 I r I VI i I i e Q Patented Apr. 14, 1925.

UNITED STATES PIERPONT E. DUTCHERJOF -UPPEB MONTCLAIB, NEW JERSEY.

GOLF

CLUB.

Application filed November 7, 1924. Serial No. 748,428.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, PIERPONT E. DUTCH- nn, a citizen of the UnitedStates, and resident of Upper Montclair, in the county of Essex andState of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in GolfClubs, of which the following is a specification. v

This invention relates to an improvement in golf clubs, and, moreparticularly, in the head of the clubs which are especially designed forlong distance driving. I

An ob'ect of the invention is to .lprovide a golf club head which is soshaped as to olfer a minimum of resistance to the air during thatportion of the golfing swing in which the greatest acceleration of theclub head should be obtained and is obtained 1 a correct swin x 7Another ob ect consists in providing a golf club head which is so shapedas to embody a stream-line form arranged in such angular relation withrespect to the striking face of the club,that the axis of thestream-line is quite nearly coincident with the direction of movement ofthe head of the club, considering both vertical and horizontal comonents during that part of the swingin w ich eatest acceleration of clubhead speed 'shou d be obtained.

Another object consists in providing certain improvements in the formand construction of a golf club head whereby the above named and otherobjects may be effectively attained.

A practical embodiment of my invention is represented in theaccompanying drawin s, in which 7 ig. 1 represents a detail plan view ofthe head and part of the handle.

Fig. 2 represents a section taken in the plane of the line 11-11 of Fig.1.

Fig. 3 represents a detail front elevation of the club head and part ofthe shaft.

Fig. 4 represents a section taken--in the plane of the line IVIV of Fig.3. I

Fig. 5 reresents a diagrammatic view, partly dotted, showing differentositions of the club during that portion of t e swin in which greatestacceleration of the club head should be obtained.

Golf clubs used for long distance driving, such as driver, brassie, ands oon, commonl have comparatively large eads compose of wood, and it isan important consideration that these heads shall be so shaped as topass through the air, during the swing of the club preparatory tostrikin the ball, with a. minimum of resistance.

0 golf swing is difiicult to illustrate and difiicult to descr be inwords, but there are certain fundamental factors which have almostuniversal approval among those well skilled in this pastime, and whichmay be observed by means of the slow motion pictures or by selectingindividual views from a set of motion photographs.

It iscommon atthe resenttime, to photograph 'theinostnote' golf playersand to so set a vgfro'u [of fifteen or twenty views from the motionphotographs so as to illustrate withg clarit the position of the body,head, arms,;han s, and club at various stages of the swing when properlyand eifectively performed." 1 These pictorial representations almostuniversally show that, in performing a stroke with thelong distanceclubs, the wrists are considerably bent at the top of the stroke, sothat the club extends ofi at something like right angles to the leftarm, which is ordinarily quite straight. This bent position of thewrists and an lar! relationship of the club shaft and le t arm aresubstantially maintained during a large portion of the downward swingand, indeed, until the hands are approx mately at the level of thewaist. In other words, from the top of the swing down to this position,the club head is dragged or pulled with a sort of elliptical motionrather glen being swung with a true circular mo- However, after thehands have reached about the levelof the waist, the wrists begin tostraighten out so as to impart acceleration and great speed to the headof the club immediately before and at the time of its impact with theball. This is frequentl referred to as the flick or snap. o the wrists,and it is an essential of correct timing of the stroke resulting in longdistance driving in a straight path. Failure rapidly to accelerate theclub head speed at this portion of the swing will not only result in acomparatively feeble blow being imparted to the ball, with theconcomitant of a short flight, but will also frequently result ina'poorly hit ball passing off at an angle to the intended line offlight.

It may also be noted that, during the por- 1 is drawn tion of the swingafter the hands reach aboutthe level of the waist, there are bothvertical and lateral components in the direction of travel of the clubhead. In other words, the

club head is moving from a height down toward the ground and is alsomoving from fiearward position forwardly toward the My inventioncontemplates forming the head of the club with a stream-line shape sodisposed in angular relationto the striking face of the club head, as toimpart the least resistance to the movement of the club head duringthepart of the swing above described in which greatest acceleration shouldbe obtained. L

. Referring to the drawings, theclub head in general is denoted by 1,and it may be secured in any well known or approved manner to a suitableshaft 2.

The striking face .ofthe clubhead is marked 3 and an inset 4 of netal,vulcanized fiber, or other hard material, is provided at the lowerportion of the striking face in the customary manner.

From the striking face 3 rearwardly, the head is tapered to its backedge, whichlatter own quite finely, as well shown in Fig. 2.

The direction of this taper is preferably such that what I here chooseto call the longitudinal axis of its vertical section, represented bydot and dash lines marked LL inFig. 1, extends at an obtuse, angle awayfrom a horizontal projection of the-shaft 2. This assists in minimizingthe resistance of the club head to the air during all that portion ofthe swing from the top down to a short distance previous to impact withthe ball, because during nearly all of this portion of the swin thepoint of the heel, marked 5, prece es the remainder of the club head.This feature of construction and the reason therefor is set forth in mycopending application for United States Patent Serial No. 661,607, filedSeptember 8, 1923, wherein a club head having a more exaggerated form inthis respect is illustrated.

In the invention which forms the subject matter of thepresentapplication, the said longitudinal axis of the vertical section of theclub head projects upwardly at an acute angle to the striking face 3, asis'well indicated by dot and dash lines in Fig. 2. This is a feature ofprime importance because, during practically all of that portion of theswing which takes place after the hands reach about the level of thewaist, the clubhead is moving downwardly toward the ground so that, ifthe bottom ofthe club were substantially flat, it would provide a broadsurface contacting with the air and lying in a plane at a pronouncedangle to the are of movement. By havmg a streamline form so related tothe plane of the striking face that its said axis projects upwardly atan acute angle to said ace, a stream-line form is imparted to the clubhead which eliminatesthe flat surface contact of the club with the airjust described and thereby greatly facilitates the acceleration of theclub head as against the air resistance encountered in traversingdownwardlythe Verticalcomponent of that portion of the swing after thehands reach about the level of the waist. 4

This portion of the swing which has several times been mentioned aboveis dia ammatically represented in Fig. 5, by fu and dotted linepositions of the club. In this figure, the pointmarked C is the centerof the are through which the club head travels,

and said point C is intended to represent, substantially, the wrists ofthe player. The straightening of the wrists from their bent position,above described, moves the club head throughout the arc which isrepresented in dot and dash lines and marked A, A, and, during thisperiod, there is practically no movement of the arms. In other words,the club pivots around the wrists of the player while there is almostcom lete stoppage of the swinging movement 0 the arms. and it will beseen thatthis results in very great acceleration in the speed ofmovement of the club head so that it may strike the ball with besteffect.

As pointed out above, the shape of the club head which forms the subjectmatter of this invention is best calculated to decrease air resistanceduring this portion of the swing,

and I believe that it is most important for the air resistance to beminimized at this time if the stroke is to be most effective.

It is true that, during that portion of the swing immediately precedingcontact of the club head with the ball, the stream-line arrangement ofmy resent invention is not such as to be coincident with the directionof movement of the club head, and, therefore,.the beneficial effect ofmy invention is lost, at least. in part, at this moment. Nevertheless,this is not a matter of major importance because. the speed of movementof the club head has been so greatly accelerated during the portion ofthe stroke 're re-' sented in Fig. 5 of the drawings,.in w ich portionthe stream-line arrangement accordmg to my invention is used to greatbenefit, that the speed will not be a preciably re- 'duced because ofany imper ection in the stream-line club head in such a manner that whatI have designated as the longitudinal axis of its verticalsectionextends upwardly at an acute angle to the striking face of theclub. Thisarrangement, in combination with the obtuse angularity of'said axis withrespect to a horizontal projection of the shaft, makes a streamline formwhich is most effective in minimizing air resistance throughout theswing as a whole; but I wish to point out that the vital characteristicof my present invention will be embodied so long as the saidlongitudinal axis of the vertical section extends upwardly at an acuteangle to the striking face of the club, even though the said axis doesnot lie'in an obtuse angle relationship to a horizontal pro-' jection ofthe shaft.

I prefer also. to make-the neck 6 of the club head stream-line in form,as represented by the section shown in Fig. 4, since this portion of thehead is also somewhat bulky, and a stream-line effect is advantageous.

It will be understood that various changes may be resorted to in theform and construction of the various parts without departing goute angleto the plane of said striking ace.

2. A golf club head having a striking face, said head being providedwith a body portion extending rearwardly from said'face, said bodyportion being rearwardly tapered to constitute a stream-line form, thelongitudinal axis of the vertical section ofsaid tapered portionextending upwardly at an acute angle to the plane of said striking faceand at an obtuse angle away from a horizontal projection of the shaft.

3. A golf club head having a striking face, said head being providedwith a body portion extending rearwardly from said face, said bodyportion being rearwardly tapered to constitute a stream-line form, thelongitudinal axis of the vertical section of said tapered portionextending upwardly at an acute angle to the plane of said striking face,said head also having a neck of streamline form in cross section.

4. A golf club head having a striking face, said head being providedwith a body portion extending rearwardly from said face, said bodyportion being rearwardly tapered to constitute a stream-line form, thelongitudinal axis of the vertical section of said tapered portionextending u wardly at an acute angle to the plane 0' said striking faceand at an obtuse angle away from a horizontal projection of the shaft,said headalso having a neck of stream-line form in cross section.

In testimony, that I claim the foregoing as my invention, I have signedmy name this 5th day of November, 1924.

PIERPONT E. BUTCHER.

